Saturday, January 25, 2014

Celebrate This Week 1.25.14

It's always good to end the week on a positive note. Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives. We have a choice. Choose positive. Choose to celebrate. I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week. Check out all the other celebrations HERE

It's always surprising when you do something weekly, how fast a week really goes by! Just a quick post today. Have to get ready for another round of weekend swim meets!1. First Celebration - I went to another conference on the upcoming PARCC test this week. This particular day focused on the 4th grade. I've been going to these day-long conferences that our local ROE has been hosting for almost a year. I generally get very overwhelmed and my brain feels like it's going to explode! This is the first time that I felt more like I could handle everything. I still felt like my brain was going to explode (isn't that how you always feel when you leave conferences???), but I wasn't as overwhelmed. I felt like for once, this was helping me narrow down what we need to focus on for our trimester units. We are still working on what to teach, how to teach it all, getting the assessments in, and somewhere in there, enjoying everything, but this was the first time I felt like I was going to make some headway that would make a difference. Tonight, I sat down and put together a lesson that combines the questioning technique we learned in last week's inservice day with some form of the PARCC's Literary Analysis Task. It's a 4th grade lesson that I am going to try with our students this week. I will post later in the week the lesson for anyone who wants to give it a try!2. Second Celebration - I did some Fountas and Pinnell running records with students this week. Gosh, those take so long to complete! I don't know who is more exhausted at the end of them - the students or me! If anyone has any ideas on how to speed up the process, let me know! However, one of my reading intervention students, who I've worked with for years, is finally performing on this assessment at grade level. And an even bigger celebration is his new interest in reading! I got him started on the Creature in my Closet series before winter break. His parents bought him the third one to continue over break, and then this week his dad bought him 2 more books based on my suggestion - a Lunch Lady and a Squish book! I'm glad to see his parents helping him continue his desire to read!3. Third Celebration - It's amazing how fast our children grow up. I wish I could slow down and appreciate it more. One day, I will look back on this post, and remember how much I love it when my 8 year old slows down long enough to give me a really great hug and whisper in my ear, "I love you Mommy."Have a great week!

Slowing down to celebrate has become an important weekly practice for me, too. I believe when we put the right book in a child's hand, we have given them a lifelong gift. Not only will he read better and stronger, he will love reading. Congrats on all you accomplished this week.